Baxter: Product contained live bird flu virus

The company that released contaminated flu virus material from a plant in Austria
confirmed Friday that the experimental product contained live H5N1 avian flu viruses.

And an official of the World Health Organizations European operation said the
body is closely monitoring the investigation into the events that took place at Baxter
Internationals research facility in Orth-Donau, Austria.

At this juncture we are confident in saying that public health and occupational
risk is minimal at present, medical officer Roberta Andraghetti said from
Copenhagen, Denmark.

But what remains unanswered are the circumstances surrounding the incident in the
Baxter facility in Orth-Donau.

The contaminated product, a mix of H3N2 seasonal flu viruses and unlabelled H5N1
viruses, was supplied to an Austrian research company. The Austrian firm, Avir Green Hills
Biotechnology, then sent portions of it to sub-contractors in the Czech Republic, Slovenia
and Germany.

The contamination incident, which is being investigated by the four European countries,
came to light when the subcontractor in the Czech Republic inoculated ferrets with the
product and they died. Ferrets shouldnt die from exposure to human H3N2 flu viruses.

Public health authorities concerned about what has been described as a serious
error on Baxters part have assumed the death of the ferrets meant the H5N1
virus in the product was live. But the company, Baxter International Inc., has been
parsimonious about the amount of information it has released about the event.

On Friday, the companys director of global bioscience communications confirmed
what scientists have suspected.

It was live, Christopher Bona said in an email.

The contaminated product, which Baxter calls experimental virus material,
was made at the Orth-Donau research facility. Baxter makes its flu vaccine 
including a human H5N1 vaccine for which a licence is expected shortly  at a
facility in the Czech Republic.

People familiar with biosecurity rules are dismayed by evidence that human H3N2 and
avian H5N1 viruses somehow co-mingled in the Orth-Donau facility. That is a dangerous
practice that should not be allowed to happen, a number of experts insisted.

Accidental release of a mixture of live H5N1 and H3N2 viruses could have resulted in
dire consequences.

While H5N1 doesnt easily infect people, H3N2 viruses do. If someone exposed to a
mixture of the two had been simultaneously infected with both strains, he or she could
have served as an incubator for a hybrid virus able to transmit easily to and among
people.

That mixing process, called reassortment, is one of two ways pandemic viruses are
created.

There is no suggestion that happened because of this accident, however.

We have no evidence of any reassortment, that any reassortment may have
occurred, said Andraghetti.

And we have no evidence of any increased transmissibility of the viruses that
were involved in the experiment with the ferrets in the Czech Republic.

Baxter hasnt shed much light  at least not publicly  on how the
accident happened. Earlier this week Bona called the mistake the result of a combination
of just the process itself, (and) technical and human error in this procedure.

He said he couldnt reveal more information because it would give away proprietary
information about Baxters production process.

Andraghetti said Friday the four investigating governments are co-operating closely
with the WHO and the European Centre for Disease Control in Stockholm, Sweden.

We are in very close contact with Austrian authorities to understand what the
circumstances of the incident in their laboratory were, she said.